Phillies spring training: Season ended, but Utley never stopped

Associated Press
Chase Utley fields a grounder during a workout Thursday in Clearwater, Fla. Utley said that, to keep his knees in shape, he essentially just never stopped playing baseball in the offseason.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Chase Utley, owner of a sense of humor drier than a salamander under a heat lamp, decided to send Charlie Manuel a text message at Christmas time to update him on the condition of his knees.

“The text at Christmas said, ‘If you’ll be a good boy ... Santa might bring you a healthy second baseman.’”

In that case, the Phillies and their ornery manager are doomed.

Kidding aside, Utley said Friday that he believes strongly that there will be no tragic repeat of last spring, when after spending that winter on a strenuous body-strengthening regimen, his knees failed him just days into baseball workouts.

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“It hadn’t worked out over the last couple years,” said Utley, who missed the first 76 games of last season after missing the first 46 of 2011. “I wanted to change it up and do something different. The program that I followed last year didn’t work for me to get on the field.”

When Utley returned after missing nearly all of the opening three months of 2012, the Phillies presumed they would need to give the second baseman enough days off to ease his balky knees.

Instead, out of the final 86 games in which he could have played, he appeared in 83 and started 81. And an interesting thing occurred as the weeks progressed: Utley’s knees seemed to respond better to the daily baseball activity.

Because of that, his winter workout program was simple: Keep performing baseball activities.

“I basically didn’t stop playing baseball, which is something I hadn’t done in the past,” Utley said of this offseason. “So I think that has really helped. I started to take ground balls a week after the season ended. I went through that whole program and so far, so good.

“(Phillies athletic trainer) Scott (Sheridan) and I talked about it ... and I had realized that I was feeling good as soon as I came back and I wanted to keep it that way. I wanted to keep doing the things that I’ve been doing and building on that.”

Utley found a friend in the University of San Francisco baseball program, as the head coach welcomed him to work out with the squad. The Utleys have a residence in the Bay Area as well as in Philadelphia.

“The coaches said basically, ‘Whatever you need, we are there for you,’” Utley said. “They hit me ground balls and threw me batting practice daily. And I really appreciated that.

“I feel pretty damn good right now. Hopefully, it will stay that way and I think it will. Hopefully, all the work has paid off.”

Although Utley hit just .256 last season, there was a consensus between him, Manuel and regular observers that he was hitting the ball harder last season than he did in 2011, even though he batted .259 that season. The hit charts back it up. After hitting .735 (36-for-49) on line drives in ’11, he only batted .566 (30-for-53) on liners last season.

“I felt that I swung the bat a lot better last year than the year before. I squared up a lot more balls,” Utley said. “They say that they work out for you if you hit a ball hard and make an out, then a ball will find a hole when you don’t (make hard contact) ... That’s baseball. That’s how it works and this is a new year and I’m extremely excited.”

Utley is in the final year of a seven-year, $85 million deal and will make $15 million in 2013. The time he has missed the last two seasons due to chronically sore knees makes it impossible to judge his value at present time, but the 34-year-old eliminated any questions about how willing he is to keep playing beyond this season.

“I enjoy this game. I feel I have a lot to still do in this game, so who knows,” Utley said. “I’d like to play more than this year, that’s for sure.

“I’m obviously aware (the contract ends) but I don’t think it really changes anything that I’ve done. I’ve approached every season the same way. The last few years didn’t go well as far as getting on the field initially.”